In 2017, Yannis Kyriakides rewrote Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms for choir, harp and electronic instruments—line by line, section by section. The duration of Ein Schemen and its seven-movement form fully correspond to the structure of the original, written in 1865–1869 to verses from Luther’s translation of the Bible.

Extracting individual elements from the score of Ein deutsches Requiem, the composer extends them in time and transforms into soundscapes where the listener may roam freely, following Brahms. The work’s title echoes a line in the third movement of Ein deutsches Requiem: Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen—”Surely every man walks about like a shadow” (Psalms 39:6). Ein Schemen means a shadow, vision, phantom: Kyriakides notes that this word precisely reflects the nature of the work—balancing between the worlds of the living and the dead, existing in the shadow of Brahms and filled with his music as a divine presence.

Ein Schemen is one of Kyriakides’ central works of recent years. Another important piece, the opera Ask Ada (2021), was performed at the Playhouse of GES-2 in the spring of 2023. Almost a year later, his music will be heard in this space once more in a performance by Ekaterina Antonenko and the Intrada vocal ensemble.